A Storybook Christmas

Very watchable for a Christmas movie. These are always predictable so need to be entertaining along the way and this was. I didn't take to the child, and certainly not as quick as she did to the nanny. I would have expected a bit of suspicion especially as it was a man, and acceptance was too quick imo.

The acting was good.

It's like watching a recording of a soccer game when you know the result. You know how it ends and only worth watching for the entertainment.

Okay, my review is too short apparently and I need to have more content. So I will add the numerous scene with the snowman building. Quite funny.

Firstly, good plot. Just good. Ali Liebert is just amazing, she definitely is a fan favourite. She always makes her characters work. First time watching Jake Epstein in one of these movies (I've previously seen him in Suits), and he did great. While I did think the leads had a good vibe going on, I didn't thought of it as the romantic kind. They just seemed really good friends.

Secondly, the fiancee in this movie served no purpose, we could have done without him. He did nothing but talk about his job and always had an excuse, but at least he wasn't... how do I say it? Most Hallmark boyfriends tend to be repulsive to me, because they don't even try in their relationship. This one did.

While we knew what to expect at the end, in my opinion, it felt kind of rush. The problem and the solution took place in all of ten minutes? Other than those, I actually really enjoyed it.

This movie is a combination of inexperienced-nanny-fixes-controlling-executive, and another common plot line that isn't fully revealed until late, so I won't explicitly say what that is. There are enough clues as to what's going to happen at the end so most viewers will figure it out, certainly before Celeste does. (Even if it is easy to figure out, I wish reviewers would not give these things away without tagging spoilers.)

Ali Liebert isn't as controlling as I think she was meant to be, but then Liebert is just too sweet to be that rigid. There is a heartwarming aspect to the story as shown by Celeste's devotion to Finley reinforced by their backstory. Liebert does the role so well, and with tenderness, that it's hard to maintain her character as overly rigid.

Unlike a lot of Christmas movies where the female lead bonds with the male lead's child, the genders are switched, but the idea is the same. Jake Epstein has good chemistry with both the child, Habree Larratt , and aunt turned mom, Ali Liebert.

The story includes the token existing fiance which leads to some competitiveness in things like building a snowman, but the fiance never really seemed viable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It is one of the better Hallmark films.

It had a more unique plot with great lead and other characters.

It is getting tiresome to see the same plots on so many of the Hallmarks.

Some reviewers seem to be so critical of some actors. These reviewers appear to want all their characters to be the same. I view those characters to be fake.

People are unique. So, it is refreshing to see unique characters.

I enjoy the diversity in characters, so I felt the characters in this film were great.

Quite disappointing. The lead male had no place being cast as such, but at least he could act better than the "other" boyfriend.

I was hoping to like this one about a writer and event planner. Both things I like, but it just dragged on and was poorly cast.

Nothing else to say about it really, but it wasn't so bad that I switched it off, but I won't want to watch it again in a hurry.